Remembering 9/11 2001

[Grisu]

I was on vacation in the western US at the time and since we were not at home it took us a long time until we heard from the attacks.

Around noon we were in the petrified forest N.P. and some fellow tourist (american) asked us if we planned to visit Las Vegas and that we should expect the hoover dam to be closed to public for the next few day. I didn't realize why he would tell us this, I thought that maybe there are some roadworks there or something. as we drove on we realized that the park was deserted and we finally turned on the radio to get some news. It took us a long time to realize what was actually happening.

I later remembered that when we checked out our motel that morning there were some guys in the lobby watching tv and I (to my shame) thought something like "some guys are really addictet to that thing".

that evening we just sat in our motel room staring at the tv and thinking that this has to be some sick joke or something.

 

[Shabbaman]

Originally posted by CornMaster
I was at work.

And I got the day off. Phone lines were too busy to take any calls.

'At work'? Check the start of this thread
I arrived at home when one of my inmates asked me if I could turn the tv on, because he couldn't receive CNN properly. We saw the second plane crash.

 

[Jayne]

I'm in England. September 11 was always a day that would stick in my mind. I arrived at work late because I had an antenatal appointment. One of the bosses covered for me and we had an unusual task to sort out afterwards. This meant I didn't go for my lunch until 3pm BST (about 10am in NYC?). I heard a customer outside talking about a plane hijack, then one of my staff came in and said that the customer had told her the World Trade Centre had been destroyed by 2 hijacked planes, another had destroyed the Pentagon and another was heading towards the White House. We weren't really sure whether or not to believe him. We had no radio so my colleague phoned her husband, who confirmed it. It was all very hard to take in.

But as I said - September 11 2001 is very special to me in another way because at my antenatal appointment, I first heard my baby's heartbeat! I felt it was very significant that I heard it on that day.

 

[Turner]

I was working third shift at the time, and I don't remember why I didn't know about it on my way home (I got off work about fifteen minutes after the second crash) because I usually listen to the newsradio on the way home. Must have left it off that day. I remember getting home and hearing about the plane crash, and thought it was a light plane. I remember thinking "That's too bad, hope no one got hurt" Then I turned on the TV to see if the news had anything about it and saw the second one plow into the tower. I was pretty much in shock after that.

Then I saw the pic from Washington D.C. and saw smoke in the background. I thought "He's in D.C.. . . how can they see the smoke?" It took me a couple of minutes to understand the Pentagon had been hit too. After that, I expected planes to be falling out of the sky.

I heard from my wife that a co-worker of hers had a friend (this tells me it rumor and probably not fact, but chilling none-the-less) was on a flight from Dallas to Chicago, scheduled to take off just as the no-fly rule was put into effect, being stopped on the runway and the pilot making an announcement that they would not be flying because of the terrorist attacks in NYC. Three people behind the lady pulled out cell-phones and started talking in an middle-eastern language. I'm sure the story it just rumor. Even if it did happen as I heard there is a really good chance it was a legitimate buisness call.

My wife's cousin works for the Kansas City Fire Department, and he is part of their Urban Rescue Squad. He was sent to NYC maybe a week afterwards, and he was crawling around inside the wreckage looking for people. No one has really talked with him regarding his experiences there, but we do know it affected him profoundly.

I saw patriotism become vogue again here. Radio stations have been playing sound bites "I'm so and so, and I'm proud to be an American." In a way, it saddens me to think that it took something like this to awaken the patriot inside. I like to think that people just weren't wearing their feelings on the sleeves. I love my country, I always have. I know everyone has their own way of showing it, and that's fine with me.

Their were lessons that we should have learned with the 9/11 attacks. Most don't have very much to do with the attacks themselves. I just hope that everyone learned them as well as we should have.

 

[Zwelgje]

At the time I was jobless and just watching some tv and then completely by accident I turned on CNN and there I saw one tower with smoke coming out and they were telling a plane had hit. I called my girlfriend to watch the tv as she had visited the WTC just two years before that and she was in shock. We were watching there, the two of us, when the second plane hit and then the plane in the pentagon and then the fourth plane of which was unknown where it was heading.
It was so unreal...

 

[polymath]

I had taken the afternoon off feeling ill - I was just about to curl up in bed and watch a video. I put the telly on about 20 seconds before the second plane hit.
I hardly moved for a good 12 hours.
It was easily the most WTH! moment I've ever experienced.

 

[knowltok2]

I was at work, and I started to overhear people in the hallway talking about a plane having hit the WTC. I assumed, like many others, that it was a small plane, and not that big of a deal. After a while the people were still talking about it so I went out into the hall and found out how serious it was.

We then got a TV and watched it in the hallway all morning. We left at noon and when I got home my wife and I just sat and watched for hours. It goes without saying that I will never forget.

Also, I find it in poor taste that some have chosen this thread and this day to express their negative views about the US. Have your views, make your statements, but does it have to be in this thread, on this day?

 

[Alcibiaties of Athenae]

This is the thread many of the posts referred to:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3415

This was split off to preserve the feeling of the original.

 

[Padma]

I had just arrived at work (US Strategic Command) and was settling in to another day of programming. A young lady from a few cubes over came by and asked if I had heard anything about a plane hitting the WTC. I said no, and opened a browser window to one of the news feeds. We looked at the pictures (couldn't get video; the net was really bogged down) and decided it had to be a small plane/accident. Then the second plane hit. This was no accident!

The base started raising the ThreatCon level, higher than it had ever been before other than for exercises. After the Pentagon was hit, we were at the top level. All non-essential personnel were told to leave. That was one of the hardest things for me. I haven't been out of uniform that long so it felt like I was deserting my post.

I live close by, so I was home before the towers fell. My wife and I spent the rest of the day watching the TV in shock. My strongest memories are of watching footage of the second plane hitting the tower, and watching the towers collapse in on themselves.

It's emotionally hard to remember that day, but we must always remember; we will never forget.

 

[Alcibiaties of Athenae]

Well, I wrote what happened that very same day:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3423&perpage=20&display=&pagenumber=1

Everyone should remember that 9/11 2001 wasn't a tragedy, it was outright murder.
And for those that don't understand America's war on terror, 9/11 is the reason, we turned away in 93 when the WTC was attcked, ignored the embassy attacks in Africa and Kober towers in Saudi Arabia and the attack on the USS Cole.
9/11 was the straw that broke the camel's back, no more of these animals.

 

[col]

Watched TV pix with horror here in Uk. I remember reading AofA's account at the time - and many others in the press over here.

I'd been in the WTC on August 11th.
A month to the day different - Could have been me.

 

[Total_cho]

Moderator Action: Push your agenda elseware, it isn't welcome at CFC, nor are you.

One week ban.

AoA
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[Padma]

Thanks Aoa.

I read it before you deleted it, and I was so angry that I couldn't even PM you.

On this day, of all days.

 

[Alcibiaties of Athenae]

No, it can stay, as a reminder it any other idiot that tries to turn 9/11 into an anti US/Bush rant, you will join Total_Cho.

 

[Alcibiaties of Athenae]

Originally posted by Padma
Thanks Aoa.

I read it before you deleted it, and I was so angry that I couldn't even PM you.

On this day, of all days.

My pleasure.

For 364 days a year, I let the kids play out their nonsense and conspiracy theories, it will not happen this day.

 

[floppa21]

AOA you stud. Think guy forgot the AD on the end of his name...

First I heard of any of it was here on these boards to tell the truth. Had no radio on the way to work. Nothing was happening yet when I left. They shut down our office pretty quick. I went home and watched and talked to family and some friends. Read AOA's 2 posts the next day I believe. Remembrance in the conference room here in 5 minutes.

Polymath said it right. "It was the most WTH moment I've ever experienced." Week for me.

 

[Stat Kat]

I'll also express thanks to AoA. I was totally shocked as Padma was.

To stay on topic, I too was at work when I got news about the tragedy. I got to a TV in time to see the second plane hit and both towers fall.

I just keep remembering how I didn't believe it when someone told me the news in the first place. I felt the same way back when I was a freshman in high school when I heard that the Challenger exploded. I thought these were jokes, until I got the grim confirmation moments later. I can't speak for most Americans, but I guess I'm one of those who took things. like freedom, for granted.

My father and his father both served in the military and though I never talked to them about their experiences in WWII, Korea and Vietnam, I now have a greater understanding and respect for them and all of our servicemen who have sacrificed so much for not only Americans, but for people worldwide.

 

[SpacemanSpiff]

You all know by now where I was (if you read the original thread, now separated and preserved as noted above).

I was here. With many of you.

Yeah, physically, I was at work (but not working after 9:15am EDT). I spent that day watching & listening to the reports coming in through Internet and radio ... posting here those relevant to me.

This was the community where I chose to be that day ... to share what I knew and what I was going through. One year later, I see that I needed to do something at the time other than just watch. I would have been a heap in my cube, otherwise. Posting ... sharing ... that was my venting of the nervous energy and horror.

In retrospect, the things that really stand out in my memory are these:

- the sound in my wife's voice (by phone) watching the 1st tower collapse live ... I couldn't see it ... I couldn't envision "collapse" until the Internet calmed down and I could play a video. Did it fall over (sideways)? Did just the top fall off? Did it split in half? Did it hit the other tower? And what kinds of damage and additional lives lost in all of those scenarios?

- when 14 or so planes were still "unaccounted for" and we didn't know what was going to happen next

- the first time I saw a plane fly over head after all this ... I was leaving work, heard a sound I hadn't heard for a long time, looked up and froze. A single airliner knifing across a sky that formerly contained nothing but birds for so long. I couldn't move until I couldn't see it anymore.


As the initiator of that original thread, I want to thank you (all of you, but esp. Globber) for resurrecting it. That was what I came here to do today ... as part of my Rememberance, and in rememberance of where I was and how I spent that day ... and it was already done. I'm glad others had the same idea.

I also thank you, AoA, for preserving it as is/was.

Spiff

PS - Yeah, I'm still around. I don't have time to visit/post. But Civ and this site are no less important to me.

 

[knowltok2]

Another thumbs up AOA. I too read it before you took care of it and was completely discusted. Col said it well, 15 is no excuse.

 

[Leowind]

Need to leave to go to chapel service scheduled at the christian school I work at, then play for service at my church, but wanted to post my remembrances. At home, sister-in-law called, turned on the TV to see both towers burning, then watched them both collapse. Absolutely in shock. I've avoided most of the hype around the anniversary, even played Civ 2 last night while my wife watched TV. Came out and she seemed really emotional, so quit the game and spent a bit of time with her wateching the end of the program. Kind of sorry now I didn't watch the whole thing. We do need to remember, and occasionally be reminded, of how horrific this event was, and still is in the lives of thousands of people personally effected in some way.

God's peace to all of us this day and always.